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Monday, 22 July 2013

Nosy Crow

I haven't mentioned it yet, but not long after getting back from holiday, I joined the Nosy Crow Crew! Nosy Crow is a really creative children's publisher, and I love what I've read of them so far. My reviews of their stuff will always be completely honest, but it just means I'll be talking a bit more about any of their books/apps that I love the look of or have read.

Little Red Riding Hood, appAs you may have guessed, this app tells the story of Little Red Riding Hood; the difference is, though, that it can be tailored to your child's reading needs. The app can read all the writing to them, or they have the option to read it themselves, with an option for how long the text stays on the page: slow, medium or fast. Once you've ticked your option, the story begins. The story will appear at the bottom, and you can click on the characters to see what they say. Quite often they'll set you a task - the first one is for Red/the player to pack the basket she'll be taking to her grandma's. You then press the arrow to move on. This is brilliant and kept Caitlin engaged, although one thing I will say is that it's not all that quick to load the activity, so sometimes I'd press the arrow to move on and end up skipping the activity. It's easy to go back though.

There's then a map you can go onto to select the route Red should take to get to grandma's. Again, it took a small amount of time to figure out I had to use the map (as otherwise Red just walks, with nothing happening). As you can see from the picture, there are a series of pictures you can click on to walk through on your route. Two items found from your journey will be used in Red's subsequent fight with the wolf. I thought this was an excellent idea, and Caitlin loved doing things like picking up all the daisies to put into the basket.

Everything's voiced by children (even the adults), which I'm not sure Caitlin noticed but probably made it more appealing. The whole app is a brilliant way to tell the story, not only for children, but for adults too. When I first bought it, I spent ages going through all the possible scenarios and finding out just what I could do. It's also one of Caitlin's favourites, and I'm looking forward to showing her the (award-winning!) Nosy Crow Cinderella app I bought recently.

I'd highly recommend Little Red Riding Hood, although a some supervision is probably needed at the beginning to make sure the child doesn't miss anything.